Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard

(From The USA Today -- By Michael McCarthy)

TERRY BRADSHAW reminded viewers of that old saying on
FOX NFL SUNDAY as he turned thumbs-down to the "comedy" of FRANK CALIENDO.

Every week on the highest-rated NFL pregame show, the stand-up comic does a FRANK'S PICKS shtick. This past Sunday, Caliendo, who also co-stars on FOX's MAD TV, lampooned ABC's
JOHN MADDEN, the gold standard of NFL sportscasters, as a fat slob ready to chow down on not one but two roasted chickens. "That wasn't funny. Not funny at all," Bradshaw said.

Why would FOX air lame, sometimes insulting, comedy by Caliendo and JIMMY KIMMEL the last seven seasons when there's so much football to discuss?

FOX wants to inject "humor" and entertainment into a show that typically focuses on X's and O's, says SCOTT ACKERSON, the program's Coordinating Producer.

"It's one of the most popular segments we have," he says of FRANK'S PICKS. Neither Madden nor others skewered by Caliendo have complained, although some of their agents and friends have, Ackerson adds.

Ackerson can't resist a dig at other networks (he used to be a producer at ESPN) that he says are following FOX's lead by using stand-up comedians. "If you want to see how hard it is to do sports comedy, pull out a tape of last year's ESPY AWARDS," he joked of that show, which included plenty of forced humor by athletes and celebrity presenters.

[Now, that's funny -- and true.]